America Is Zooming
Through the Pandemic Panic-Neglect Cycle
All epidemics trigger the same Sisyphean cycle of panic and
neglect. Even so, that cycle isn’t meant to spin this quickly.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/03/congress-covid-spending-bill/627090/
By Ed Yong
MARCH 17, 2022
All epidemics trigger the same dispiriting cycle. First,
panic: As new pathogens emerge, governments throw money, resources, and
attention at the threat. Then, neglect: Once the danger dwindles, budgets
shrink and memories fade. The world ends up where it started, forced to
confront each new disease unprepared and therefore primed for panic. This
Sisphyean sequence occurred in the United States after HIV, anthrax, SARS,
Ebola, and Zika. It occurred in Republican administrations and Democratic ones.
It occurs despite decades of warnings from public-health experts.
It has been as inevitable as the passing of day into night.
Even so, it’s not meant to happen this quickly.
When I first wrote about the panic-neglect cycle five years ago, I assumed that it would operate
on a timescale of years, and that neglect would set in only after the
crisis was over. The coronavirus pandemic has destroyed both assumptions.
Before every surge has ended, pundits have incorrectly predicted that the
current wave would be the last, or claimed that lifesaving measures were never
actually necessary. Time and again, neglect has set in within mere months,
often before the panic part has been over. The U.S. funds
pandemic preparedness “like Minnesota snow,” Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of
Minnesota, told me in 2018. “There’s a lot in January, but in
July it’s all melted.”
The panic-neglect cycle is definitely something we have to stop if we want to prevent and/or mitigate the next public health crisis. It is not a matter of "if" but of "when". Of course, as the author pointed out, we're not even done with the current pandemic. It is as if some people think that ignoring an issue will make it go away. I realize that there are other pressing issues of our time, we only need a cursory glance at our class presentations to see that. However, it would be detrimental to forget the value of investing in our public health system. We can't expect something to work if we don't give it resources. It's like expecting to have food during a famine when you never took the time to plant anything.
ReplyDeleteI planted my tomato seeds on Feb. 28th and I am still wearing a mask indoors into the foreseeable future.
ReplyDeleteSuch an awesome read, Gary, thank you for sharing. If the US (or any country in our shoes) wants to be prepared for the inevitable "snow in January" (our next Covid wave) we have to prepare in the warm and easy months. I wonder if the speed of the panic-neglect cycle has fostered the "Covid fatigue" that so many Americans talk about. I agree with Maria, we have many issues to shoot money and resources at presently, but think of all the money and resources we could save if we only remembered what the last two years have taught us.
ReplyDeletenice to see a more structured approach being released. They are dealing with a lot of money to not have had a plan sooner, but thats politics I guess.
ReplyDelete